Slices of Py
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Tuesday, October 21, 2003
 
Daily Journaling Notes
<p>Jeremy Hylton <a href="http://www.python.org/%7Ejeremy/weblog/031009b.html">notes</a> the importance of keeping good notes, along with a good chunk of sound advice from the article <a href="http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&amp;pa=showpage&amp;pid=69">Coding Smart: People vs. Tools</a> by Donn M. Seeley, which I finally got around to reading. I'd love to hear his review of <a href="http://www.cvstrac.org/">CVSTrac,</a> and whether it's feasible <a href="http://zwiki.org/CVSTrac">in a Zope scenario</a>.</p>

<p>Ed Taekema has <a href="http://www.pycs.net/users/0000177/weblog/2003/10/16.html">noted </a>the use of wiki's in this area, along with several related articles.</p>

<p>'Coding Smart' felt slightly dogmatic, but appropriately so. The initial <em>watch out--that new languages may kill your development time</em>

bugged me, as it's one of the reasons I've used to avoid writing

testing apps in Python and redundantly tested manually. His other point

that the new language may not be transferable to other workers I feel

is a non-issue with Python. Idioms. Ouch, they are the difference

between "Pythonic" and Python, eh? I admit here I was setbacked. Was

this general purpose programming language was leading down another

esoteric path, reducing my psuedocodish Python to n00bish dribble or <a href="http://www.enac.northwestern.edu/%7Etew/archives/000072.html">unreadable</a> <a href="http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node6.html#SECTION006750000000000000000">shortcuts</a>? (*What cocky programmer wouldn't claim to be able to pick up another language in a few days, let alone <a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2003/10/08/sig_quote_of_the_day">debug it</a>? ) </p>

<p>Later Seeley moved into "use psuedo-code", which I dug but raised an

eyebrow to, Given Python's readable code and experiment and validation

capabilities. Python does add a lot of value here, and of course not

everwhere. I'd like to tie in frustrations of trying to communicate in

user stories when peer coder speaks in schema tweeks and algorithms, or

that generally good problem statements inherit the solution, but won't.

Peer reviews are also cool when common values are apparent and personal

dogma is chained.</p>

<p>Outlining. +1. This is what <a href="http://www.pycs.net/sqr/2003/09/24.html%20">I use Word </a>for.</p>

<p>My college business professor (and many others) repeatedly

recommended keeping a profesional journal. I've never been able to keep

up a paper journal. My <a href="http://zwiki.org/PersonalWikiExplanation">personal wiki </a>is

primarily "notes to self" and similar links. Good notes in change logs

are critical, and prefer then to be tacked within the source, as a

"blog within a file" type of thing. Code diff's are no replacement, and

are far from convenient--<em>especially</em> when trying to grok code and it's hi<em>story</em>. My personal wiki has a <a href="http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/FrontPage">blog apsect</a>

with entry form on the front page. This causes more blog and less wiki,

but without it the time it took me to figure out where to put the

resource would derail many of my intentions.</p>

<p>Thought of the day: When folks complain about documentation, what part of knowlege management has failed?</p>
9:19:08 PM    , comment []



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